The historical policy of local communities of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra in the formation of national and regional identity

The article analyzes historical policy in local communities in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug–Ugra. A distinction is made between two levels of regional identity: territorial-geographical (pre-political) and political, which is associated with civic solidarity. The empirical base consisted of regulations and event reports from four municipalities – Uray, Megion, Surgut, and the Surgut District. Method of content analysis was applied to examine 135 events. Conclusions on the results of content analysis were supplemented with data from an expert survey. They had to assess the degree of formation of regional identity based on solidarity civic ties, as well as name the factors that contribute to or impede the formation of national and regional identity. Features of collective ideas about the past, formed, among other things, by historical policy, were investigated by the method of in-depth interviewing. Authors come to the conclusion that municipal historical policy in the region is characterized by a latent nature, the dominance of federal discourse, a structural imbalance in content, and insufficient engagement of civil society institutions. The national and regional identities of Ugra residents are stable thanks to a frontier mentality. Migration processes do not destroy this identity. The cognitive-mnemonic dissonance between official narratives and family memory breeds mistrust of official historical policy.